It’s fascinating watching a disruptive technology cross the chasm. It’s a rare opportunity in one’s technical career to see this happen to a technology that one has been intimately involved with. That’s exactly what’s happening with video chat technology that I worked on at Google, as Apple pushes the technology into the early [...]
...full articleI believe that the iPhone 4 will be remembered as the device that invented video chat. Just like how the iPod is often seen as the first real mp3 player. It wasn’t at all of course. There were dozens of mp3 players before it. But the iPod set a new quality bar which was so [...]
...full articleRecently one of my friends asked whether or not there was a general trend towards improved safety in oil exploration. Coming from a mechanical engineering background, he noted that things like bridges and buildings have gotten safer over time through failures. Every new structure is built with the collective wisdom of the many failures before [...]
...full articleA number of years ago, a bunch of my friends were reading Naomi Klein’s book No Logo and getting really riled up by it. The book is certainly written to make you angry, describing how brands and logos have become more and more prominent in our society as the marketing industry has become more sophisticated at [...]
...full articleEven though Apple products are expensive, there’s a surprising similarity between Apple and Wal-Mart: both companies push hard on other parts of the value chain to deliver lower prices for consumers.
In Walmart’s case, it’s generally suppliers who get squeezed. Walmart demands that manufacturers of goods produce them at the lowest possible price so that Walmart can charge [...]
Apple has done a fabulous job in recent years of asserting itself as a major player in the computer industry. One of their tools for accomplishing this has been a fanatical commitment to high-quality products. They strive to make every product they offer to be the best in its class, and they’ve largely succeeded at [...]
...full articleBack in 2007, I predicted that Apple would launch a subscription music service probably around 2010. My logic was based on how long it would take to get enough connected iPods into the world. Having spent a bunch of time with an unconnected mp3 player with a subscription music service I knew this [...]
...full articleThere’s lots of hubbub about Apple’s upcoming tablet device, but the stuff people are talking about I’m not actually all that excited about. A giant iPhone? Sure, that’ll be nice. A color e-reader that can run apps. Okay, I guess that’s better than kindle. A super-thin netbook without a real keyboard. Meh. Actually, I don’t [...]
...full articleAn example of the trend towards information democracy is the democratization of culture. “Participatory Culture” is the modern trend of many individuals contributing to the mass of popular culture rather than culture being broadcast from a small elite of performers. By analogy, Hollywood’s hegemony over movies and television represented a communist politburo where a small group had the power and responsibility to control the cultural experiences of the masses. Today’s information technology is tearing down this monopoly that broadcasters held, and thus democratizing culture through three mechanisms: easier content creation, distribution, and a better editorial process. We’ll look at each…
...full articleI’d like to share a couple thoughts on Detroit — a couple ideas that I’m not hearing in the popular or business press, but are important to understand. Chrysler goes bankrupt First some background. Chrysler is being restructured under bankruptcy. This doesn’t mean they’re going out of business. It means that they owe more money than they have or will be able to pay. So with the help of a judge, they’re sitting down with everybody they owe money to and telling them frankly “you’re not getting everything we owe you. Sorry, but there just isn’t enough to go around.”…
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